designSTUDIOmodern

surprise shout-out

Every so often I go through the stats of this little blog to see who is looking at what and how they find the blog. The other day I ran across a UTSA School of Architecture site where we are linked as "ENCOURAGEMENT." This I like and really appreciate. If any of you guys in the UTSA SOA read this, drop a line. I'd love to see what you guys are up to in DesignII class.

And Professor Townsend, thanks for having such good taste and including us in the ranks of architects like, well a LOT of world famous STARchitects and other lesser known but fabulous designers that we admire greatly. That's one hell of a list. Thank you sir! I don't even know what to say. It's an honour almost greater tha the Pritzker!

loftBEDS

The holidays had us designing and fabricating two wall-hung loft beds for two lucky little boys who had outgrown their kiddo beds. The big boy beds are crafted from solid pecan for the frame, platform, and ladder, and then bolted to the concrete walls of their room (in a beautful sustainabley designed house) and hung with rope and stainless hardware.

 

 

The process started with a big load of rough pecan that had to be milled out to the right dimension. The pile of wood above started out as 95 board feet of lovely raw wood.

 

 

Once milled and cut to length, the frames were put together with white oak dowels.

 

 

 

Ladders, rope siderails and tension membersm, coupled with the stainless hardware give the beds a distinct nautical feel

 

 

The richness of the lightly stained pecan wood are offset nicely by the raw concrete walls and natural light of the room.

 

 

 

now taking orders

designSTUDIO is now taking orders for the following pieces:

 

The singleSPEED is a 28 1/2" wide picnic table proportioned to gather a good sized group of people around the table for a BBQ and BS session. Bicycle wheels at one end make it easy for one person to move it about to best suite the occassion. From the dining room, to the porch, and out into the yard, singleSPEED is right at home.

 

 

Standard set-up:

28 1/2" wide table top in painted pine (2 colour)

brushed and oiled steel frame

24" wheel set

 

Standard Lengths:

12'    =    $1630

10'    =    $1555

  8'    =    $1505

 

Available upgrades:

additional top paint colours or logos    $TBD

hardwood tabletops                            $TBD

powdercoated frame                           $TBD

custom wheelsets                                $50 + wheelset

 

 

mrROBATA is the designSTUDIO take on classic Japanese hibachi and robata grilles. A steel plate firebox and cast-iron cooking grates insure long lasting performance for your backtyard grilling duties. From steaks, to yakitori and kabobs, to shrimp and veggies on the barbie, mrROBATA will grille what you got. And when your not in the grilling mood, his compact footprint and wooden lid help disguise him as a little console table.

 

 

Standard set-up:

Grillable area depth:               approx 48"x 8"

Height:                                   approx 36"

brushed and oiled steel

cast-iron reversible grates

oiled tiger-wood top

 

Standard width:

4'    =    $840

6'    =    $980

 

 

 

For more information contact us by clicking the EMAIL ME link up there to the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fabrication work

In the day to day comings and goings of designSTUDIO we have all sorts of reasons to make special customized projects and make the most out of our shop space and access to other local craftspeople. The following images are a hodge-podge of many of the smaller projects or parts of projects we've undertaken, some for clients, some personal, and some as protypes for potential lines to be marketed in the near future. Enjoy!

 

 

The pigBOX is designSTUDIO's take on what is affectionately known as a "cajun microwave." We can cook two 60lb pigs in this plate steel roaster and it is always a focal point of any of the parties we cater (yes, we do catering too!)

 

 

 

A big glass awning "window/wall" for a small rental propery really brings the outside in! What was once a small and dark kitchen is now a giant wall of glass that forms a small porch roof when open.

 

 

Who doesn't need custom waterjet-cut koi door pulls on their sushi trailer?

 

Speaking of trailers, we also re-built and re-worked the "kitchen" area of a late 50's airstream with updated appliances and re-purposing of the existing hardware and drawers.

 

 

We collaborated with our good friends at Deep Eddy West on a museum quality restoration of an amazing clock by Laurence Hunter, circa 1973. We were tasked with casting and texturing a new lead weight to match one lost over the last few decades. Working from the extant original weight and a black and white photo of another version of the clock from an old museum monograph, we crafted a new weight to bring the clock back into all it's trippy-hippy glory.

 

 

It's not too often one gets asked to work with cast and textured lead.

 

Yaki-sugi bench/coffee table made from a reclaimed cedar 8x8 and a welded and powder-coated steel base.

 

 

 

Our good friends at The BlackHeart needed a custom bar-rail to finish off their copper bar-top. We transformed a nice big old long-leaf pine beam into a custom profiled bar-rail, complete with radiused section. Wrapping our heads around the fabrication of the large radiused section that THEN had to be put through the shaper was an interesting bit of head scratching, but it came out beautifully!

 

 

 

 

mr. ROBATA is a compact hibachi-type grill that can double as an entry table when it's wooden top is in place. Inspired by clean lines and simple steel construction he is a welcome guest at any BBQ.

 

 

The singleSPEED picnic table is part of mr. ROBATA's family, sharing materials, details, and finishes. A 12' long picnic table is a heavy thing so what better way to make it easy to move than giving it some 24" bicycle wheels?

 

 

more casita progress

In fits and starts the casita project is moving forward. Framing is 99% complete, windows are going in, roof is going on, siding is going up. It's not all exactly like originally designed, as various hurdles have sprung up in the scheduling and ordering of materials that have caused some quick compromises, but it's still shaping up nicely.

The Zip-System sheathing is helping better define the overall massing and window composition.

 

The master bedroom deck structural steel is up to support the exposed rafter tails of the roof trusses. The "eyebrow" framing over the downstairs sliding glass doors is also in place and helps define the gound floor connection to the backyard.

 

Exposed v-groove cedar roof decking caps the roof and extends eaves out to give shading and definition to the shed roof. Metal siding is covering the stair saddlebag as well as the downstairs closet saddlebag. Exposed clerestory framing in the saddlebag provides for a top-lit stairwell to ascend to the upstairs master bedroom suite.

 

Translucent PolyGal will enclose the areas of exposed framing to complete the stairwell clerestory.

 

 

steel framing goes up

We've recently fabricated and installed a mid-century inspired structural steel frame. It's a rigorously detailed exposed frame that defines an indoor/outdoor space off a simple mid century builder ranch. Taking cues from the previous wooden post and beam carport and utility room, we rationalized the existing conditions into a new steel version: columns of 4" pipe, wide flange, and angle, three 8" continuous wide flange beams with 4" rafter extensions, and connection 8" channel headers.

 

The primary beams were fabricated at the shop resulting in (3x) 450lb, 26' long prefabbed pieces to be installed over the previously welded-in-place columns.

 

The rafter extensions for the 4' and 2' roof overhangs are simple compositions of steel components that result in clean connections.

 

Scaffolding and an electric hoist were called in to lift those big beams into place directly from the trailer to the top of the columns. Easy enough for one person to do it all in an 8 hour day.

 

We even had a friendly flag for the short transport from shop to site!

 

Once there it was just a matter of rigging, hoisting, and welding into place. I love it when a plan comes together...

 

Simple details make for clean forms.

 

After finish priming and clean up, and a bit of dark grey paint, we'll install exposed metal decking and get ready to tie it all to the existing house with a new butterfly roofed outdoor dining room and bathroom.

 

It should look somthing like this when done.

casita framing is happening at a fast pace

After a slow start to the foundation pour, framing has sprung up on the slab of the 850s.f. 2/2 guest house. By the end of the next week it should be all dried in and siding and roofing going on.

 

End of day one saw wall layout and framing and the floor trusses in place.

End of day 2 saw upper floor decking, wall layout and framing, stair construction, lower wall sheathing, and steel header fab and install at the upstairs roof deck.

 

By the afternoon of the third day of framing the roof trusses were up and blocked, and all of the interior walls were braced and blocked.

 

More pics next week...

More mobile food establishments

We've had all sorts of interest in our shipping container based food trailers, but sometimes we need to come up with lighter, smaller, and easier to set-up solutions than the la Boîtes and sushiBOXES of the world. We were approached by an up and coming and well recieved local restaurant to design a mobile presence for them. The design we came up speaks to their ethos of simplicity and clean lines. The material pallete chosen is a direct riff on their existing small restaurant and would serve as a great mobile billboard for their quickly growing culinary presence in town. Sadly, to date the project has yet to move forward, and hopefully it will soon, as there are no shortages of folks who would line up down the block to eat their food from a well sited trailer.

In the end it has been a very good exercise in design and costing for a fully kitted out kitchen on wheels. From the looks of it and the thourough calculations we went through in the costing exercise, we could build out a similar trailer for $32K plus the cost of appliances (dependent of course upon menu and service style desired.) You know you want one...

Tchoupatoulas Coffee?

A quick little study for a shipping container based coffee shop in New Orleans. Not a bad little spot for a cup a joe.

 

tinyhouseblog catches on to our tiny casita designs for ClearSpace

ClearSpace gave us a head's up about a nice little write-up over at tinyhouseblog. It's nice to see some love for those designs. We have tiny casitas all the way up to 1500s.f. 3/2 for those with discerning modern tastes. Check it out!